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The Santa Ana winds are in high gear over Southern California, bringing warm, dry weather, single digit humidity and a continuation of California’s worst ever drought.* The winds also bring an increased fire danger and a threat to human health from physical dehydration. According to water advocate and radio host Sharon Kleyne, the Santa Anas, and the California drought, are part of a widespread environmental dehydration trend in Southern California and elsewhere.

Is it possible to reverse the trend? According to Kleyne, the answer is “maybe.” Definitely possible, according to Kleyne, is to assure a stable water supply for everyone and to protect one’s own health from dehydration.

The syndicated Sharon Kleyne Hour™ Power of Water® radio show, hosted by fresh water advocate Sharon Kleyne, is heard weekly on VoiceAmerica and Apple iTunes. The show is sponsored by Bio Logic Aqua Research, a global research and technology center founded by Kleyne and specializing in fresh water, the atmosphere and dehydration. Nature’s Tears® EyeMist® is the Research Center’s signature Hand Held Portable Personal Misting Humidifier™ for dry eyes.

The Santa Ana winds are a fall and winter Southern California weather phenomenon. The hot, dry winds, Kleyne explains, originate in the Great Basin ands Mojave Deserts and can reach hurricane force as they stream across various mountain passes, bringing warm weather and single digit humidity at a time when Southern California is parched from summer and desperately in need of rain. The Santa Anas counteract the normally cooling and humidifying effect of the ocean.

Wind and low atmospheric humidity (water vapor content) or dry air, are the two greatest external causes of body dehydration in humans, Kleyne notes. The Santa Anas bring both in abundance and can pose a threat to human health. .

California’s current worst ever drought, Kleyne believes, is a combination of factors, some human caused and some reflecting normal cyclical variation.† Kleyne notes that the drying and warming trend is global and that desert areas are expanding worldwide. Southern California is densely populated, dry to begin with and has always experienced water problems.

Kleyne notes a parallel between dehydration of the human body and what she calls, “environmental dehydration of the planet.” The human body, according to Kleyne, is 70 percent water and a complex water recycling system. Every function, organ, structure and cell in the body requires water. Fresh water is constantly taken in by the mouth, lungs, skin and eyes and used water is constantly expelled by the kidneys, bowel, lungs, skin and other processes. When the system is upset, the body becomes dehydrated and vulnerable to illness and disease.

Similarly, says Kleyne, all life on Earth depends on the hydrological cycle – particularly the humidity (water vapor) in the atmosphere. Water infuses every living organism, the air we breathe and most of the planet near the surface and at the surface. Water is constantly recycled through evaporation, where it is collected in the upper atmosphere and returned to the surface as precipitation. Disruption in this process at any point can lead to environmental dehydration, drought and other environmental problems.

A major human caused contributor to environmental dehydration, according to Kleyne, is air pollution. Particulate pollutants such as fly ash and carbon black are “desiccants” that attract and accumulate water vapor molecules. When the air is polluted, water droplets form around the particles and fall back to the surface before reaching the upper atmosphere. The result is a decrease in upper atmospheric humidity and also a decrease in rainfall but not necessarily a decrease in surface humidity.

Even during the current drought, Kleyne believes that with improved water conservation and capture, total fresh water recycling and groundwater replenishment, there is enough water in California to meet the needs of households, agriculture and industry without going out of state or mining deep groundwater (which also contributes to drought).

To protect one’s own health against the dehydrating effects of Santa Ana Winds, Kleyne recommends staying out of the wind, applying a moisture barrier lotion combined with a skin surface humidifier to exposed skin surfaces, and drinking the recommended eight glasses of fresh water per day.